1. Technical Field
Aspects of the invention relate to a multi function device (MFD), particularly to the MFD that is configured such that an appropriate setting for a combination of a main board and a panel board can be automatically made without input from a user.
2. Related Art
Multi function devices (MFD) having a plurality of functions such as a function of a facsimile device are known. Due to recent customer demands for increased number of functions, a variety of models from low-grade models to high-grade models have been produced. In such variety of models, operation panels corresponding to the grade of the models are provided, respectively. The operation panel in each MFD is controlled by a panel board, which is connected to and controlled by a main board.
If, in one model, a combination of the main board and the panel board is inappropriate, the operation panel may not function correctly. In the worst case, the operation panel may not work at all. In Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. HEI 10-311984, a configuration enabling a correct implementation of various operation panels is disclosed. The configuration according to the publication (i.e., HEI 10-311984), in order to ensure an appropriate combination of an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) and a connecting board that connects the LCD and an LCD driving circuit, a position adjusting mark that indicates a model of the LCD device, which consists of the LCD panel, LCD driving circuit and the connecting board, is provided. By use of the mark, the user visually recognizes the model, thereby suppressing production of defective products due to incorporation of panels for different models.
On the other hand, in many cases, a variety of models of the MFDs are designed to be controlled by the same control program in order to reduce manufacturing costs. In order to ensure the common program can be used to drive the variety of models, it is necessary that the common program identifies a model of the panel board connected to the main board. Conventionally, as will be described with reference to FIG. 12, the correspondence between the main board and the panel board is manually input by the operator.
FIG. 12 shows a flowchart illustrating a conventionally employed procedure of inputting a setting regarding a combination of the main board and panel board of the MFD. The procedure shown in FIG. 12 is executed when the MFD is powered ON. In S101, the process judges whether an operation mode of the MFD has been set to a maintenance mode. If the process determines that the operation mode is set to the maintenance mode (S101: YES), the process writes a model information input by the user (i.e., information representing the model of the MFD) in an EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory) built in the MFD. With this operation, since the model information is stored in the EEPROM, if the MFD is powered ON next time, and the operation mode is not set to the maintenance mode (S101: NO), the process retrieves the stored model information from the EEPROM (S103). Then, in S104, the process identifies the model of the operation panel based on the retrieved model information, and sets a key-matrix corresponding to the identified model of the operation panel. After the setting of the key-matrix in S104, the process proceeds to a standby mode. As a result of steps S103 and S104, operations of the operation panel are interpreted correctly, which correspond to the model of the operation panel, and thus the MFD operates correctly.
The model information manually input by the user is typically a numeral code consisting of a plurality of digits (e.g., four digits) of numbers. To input such a numeral code for each MFD is very troublesome. Further, since the numeral code is input by the user, there occurs an input error, which results in defective products. However, as far as the numeral code is input manually, there remains a possibility of an erroneous input.